Tom Barry vs Frank Aiken: A Feud through the Media, 1935

Ascendant

An article on the public feud between Tom Barry and Frank Aiken, fought out in their letters to several newspapers, in June 1935.

An Unclean Scab: The Public Feud between Tom Barry and Frank Aiken, 1935

The trouble began when Aiken was attending a Fianna Fáil-organised ceilidhe in Dundalk, May 1935. Some youths heckled him with cries of 'Up the Republic' and 'Up Tom Barry.' Aiken retorted that if they knew more about their hero, they would not be cheering his name. While the other Anti-Treatyites had been fighting and dying in the Civil War, Barry had been running around the country, trying to make peace.

The incident made the papers, prompting Barry to write, complaining of his former comrade's "vicious and lying attack on me," denying that he had ever tried to make peace with the Free State during the Civil War, and daring Aiken to explain himself or else withdraw his statements.

In the proceeding war of worlds between the two, Aiken accused the Corkonian of:

1) Making unauthorised peace offers to the Free State.
2) Poor discipline as a soldier.
3) Driving the then-IRA Chief of Staff, Liam Lynch, to the point of distraction.
4) Only resuming his IRA service when Fianna Fail entered power.

It was those reasons, Aiken said, that he had insisted on Barry resigning from the IRA Executive in the 11th July 1923.



In return, Barry said that Aiken:

1) Had previously been with the Free State Army and only joined the anti-Treaty side after escaping arrest in Dundalk.
2) Avoided all fighting except for that one time in Dundalk.
3) Helped contribute to the defeat of the Anti-Treatyites with his flaky attitude.
4) Vetoed Barry's plan for a commando attack on Leinster House with the Free State Government inside which might have won the war.

The dispute played out against the turmoil and uncertainty in Ireland at the time. Having been elected as a Republican party, Fianna Fáil - for whom Aiken served as its Minister of Defence - was cracking down on Republican organisations like the IRA and their newspapers. Barry was facing a trial for assaulting a Blueshirt in Cork, and had already been convicted of seditious behavior with time in the Curragh to be served.



The feud fizzled out after Barry's third letter on the subject. Both had made legitimate, albeit often overstated points against the other.

Barry had spent a considerable amount of time and effort on peace initiatives, even if it meant going behind his superiors' backs, however much he denied it later. Aiken had moved against Republican orthodoxy since the end of the Civil War, however much he argued that his actions were logical and consistent.

The two had much in common. Both had tried to do the right thing as they saw it at the time, however awkward it was for them afterwards. Both were strong-minded, independent and willing to go against the grain with their peers. Perhaps they simply had too much in common to be anything other than adversaries in the end.

Arsemageddon

Hi Ascendant,

The link isn't working. I'm looking forward to reading your piece.

Ascendant

Arsemageddon wrote: »

Hi Ascendant,

The link isn't working. I'm looking forward to reading your piece.

Blah! There's always something...



Okay, it should be working now.

Arsemageddon

Another very good article Ascendant, thank you.

Tom Barry obviously earned the right to be blunt when speaking with his comrades, but good jaysus - he never held back.

My favourite part of Guerrilla Days in Ireland is the page and a half where he goes on a rant about how useless Skibereen was during the War of Independence.

Ascendant

Arsemageddon wrote: »

My favourite part of Guerrilla Days in Ireland is the page and a half where he goes on a rant about how useless Skibereen was during the War of Independence.

I do have to wonder if he'd just been short-changed in Skibereen or something as he was writing. For all its historical detail, his memoir was as much a product of the now as anything, with Barry trying to recreate the Good Old Days.

In a similar spirit, an interesting article from the Irish Examiner that also deals with old war heroes having to face beating their swords into ploughshares (for the most part...), :

Some War of Independence leaders were just a bloody nuisance later

Also, info on Dan Breen and Tom Barry in their later years:

In the security files released in recent years there was a report of Breen threatening to shoot a garda at the polling in Dundrum, Co Tipperary, on polling day, January 24, 1933. Breen had become involved in an altercation outside the polling and when Garda Sergeant Patrick Reilly went to see what was happening, Breen was standing with a long service revolver in his hand.

“Raise your hands,” Breen told the sergeant. “I shot better men than you.”

As Breen was obviously “under the influence of drink,” the sergeant decided that discretion was the better part of valour.

IN the security files recently released Cork barrister Paul O’Sullivan stated that Tom Barry threatened him in April 1936 because he had written references for three local people who wished to join the Royal Navy. “Let it not occur again or you’ll get the lead,” Barry said.

“He put his index finger over my heart as he made those remarks,” Sullivan noted. “I gave him an undertaking that I would not furnish such references in future qualifying it with the remark, ‘you were a British soldier yourself. ’ ”

At that point somebody came in, and the conversation ended. The next time O’Sullivan met Barry he offered his hand but O’Sullivan never knew what hit him.

BalcombeSt4

I thought Barry was one of the more successful IRA leaders during the guerrilla phase of the Civil War capturing a couple of towns in Cork and managing to hold them for a few weeks.

Was Aiken involved in the Altnaveigh Massacre?

BalcombeSt4

"4) Vetoed Barry's plan for a commando attack on Leinster House with the Free State Government inside which might have won the war."

I wonder what Irish history would have been like if this attack took place. I doubt the IRA would have won the war. I'm guessing the British would have just reoccupied the Free State with more savage reprisials against Republican soldiers and civilians.

Always wondered what would have happened had Cathal Brugha's plan to wipe out the British cabinet been put into action.

Ascendant

BalcombeSt4 wrote: »

Was Aiken involved in the Altnaveigh Massacre?

Seems he was, and it's the most common stick used to beat him with (I don't know enough about the incident to say how deservedly).

Ascendant

BalcombeSt4 wrote: »

"4) Vetoed Barry's plan for a commando attack on Leinster House with the Free State Government inside which might have won the war."

I wonder what Irish history would have been like if this attack took place. I doubt the IRA would have won the war. I'm guessing the British would have just reoccupied the Free State with more savage reprisials against Republican soldiers and civilians.

*If* had Barry had suggested it - and I have my doubts (Aiken denies it, and the only source seems to be Barry's mention of it decades later) - and it had worked (a pretty crazy plan but then, crazier schemes have worked), then I'm guessing it would reduced the Free State to a military dictatorship.

The civil government, or whatever was left of it, would probably have collapsed (there would have been a mass exodus of TDs from Dublin after Seán Hales' assassination had Cosgrave not been around to stiffen their spines), leaving the National Army around to fill the void as best it could.

Whether Richard Mulcahy would have made for an effective dictator (his whole career in the Army and in politics suggests, IMO, that he made a better follower than leader) is another question...unless Eoin O'Duffy fancied the job (being a well-respected war hero and a strict disciplinarian as Gardaí Commissioner, he would have made for a plausible Il Duce than Mulcahy).